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It happened

Iffat Nawaz
***It happened because thousands of women are raped everyday and it's no longer news, because millions of baby girls learn to take their first steps every few hours as their mothers tuck away their own dreams and pray for a safe world only for their daughters.***
IT wasn't because of amusement, distraction, attention or even excitement. It happened because it happens everyday, in our minds, in our thoughts, when we walk down streets, buy flowers from little girls in the corners, afternoon sun glistens off our bodies, evening air wants us to speak out, under our showers when we wash off the day we want to scream out words we have locked up inside for hours, days, months, years. It happened because all the expressions built inside had to come out one by one so that they can be celebrated, they are
your stories you see? Yours and mine.
It happened because thousands of women are raped everyday and it's no longer news, because millions of baby girls learn to take their first steps every few hours as their mothers tuck away their own dreams and pray for a safe, strong, successful world only for their daughters. It happened because it's a part of us as women, as human beings, and for the men too because they are part of this intricate sum and therefore they must be a part of making a difference.
So it happened on March 5th and 6th, that for the first time Dhaka became a part of V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit
productions of playwright/Founder Eve Ensler's award winning play The Vagina Monologues. With both shows sold out, the V-Day Dhaka team was able to raise funds for their local partner organisation Naripokkho.
The monologues were firsts of their kinds for Bangladesh. Issues which are often skirted, subjects that are never mentioned, were loudly uttered with grace and confidence by the eleven performers. Yes there was acting involved, but if you ask me there was more heart than drama, more truth than memorisation.
And how did the audience take it one would wonder. As the eleven ladies performed their own unique pieces, the audience went through a roller coaster of emotions. It could have been anywhere really, Bangladesh, American, Turkey, China, South Africa.. .it didn't matter, the monologues spoke in a universal language making the audience first laugh, then cry, be on the edge of their seats, and most of all feel, feel and feel.
"This show should be done all over Bangladesh, everyone needs to listen to this," "You made me cry," "That
woman in the third monologue...that was me," the audience blurted out many comments as such to the performers and to each other after the shows. The performers who came together to create this production each had gone through their own journeys to stand up straight and vocalize the words of thousands of women without feeling any trepidation or doubts. It was not just being a part of a movement but it was moving something within oneself to get there.
So though it might have not made as much noise as we are used to here in Dhaka, it made the perfect amount of marks and left at least a few hundred souls smiling and thinking, understanding and wanting to change something inside and out. And isn't that how things start? A small change in the inside, a word, an expression, a new story, hopefully resulting to millions more.
So Happy V-Day Dhaka! You make me proud.
Iffat Nawaz is Director, Drishtipat.